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Saturday, April 11, 2009

Last week I brought my wife's Lexus into the Toyota dealership for two modest repairs. There is no Lexus dealership near us and was happy to bring it in. While there, they discovered that my brakes were nearly worn out (car has 77k miles). It was no surprise to me so I had them replace the back brakes and I scheduled an appt for this morning to get the front brakes replaced. During my drive in this morning, I noticed that the car would be due for an oil change within 400 miles so I figured I'd include my oil change today with my brake job.

I was greeted by the service staff and sat down in a chair to talk about my planned maintenance. The Toyota rep had me signed the service slip for brake replacement and 4k mile maintenance and oil change. I was a bit reluctant when I saw that the oil used was going to be the Castrol Semi-Synthetic blend. He told me that it was just $3more so I relented.

I sat down in the waiting area after getting my free drink (sugar-free red bull) from their coffee bar and started to watch a movie on their TV (National Treasure, Book of Secrets). I was ready for an extended wait and brought a book along also. After an approximate 30 minute wait the Toyota rep came in and said that the brakes were never ordered last week when my appointment was made since the brakes were never paid in advance for ordering. I advised him that the appointment was made last week and I was never told that I had to pre-pay. I agreed to order the brakes and reschedule the install. He went on to say that my oil change should be done shortly. I then said:

"Please cancel the oil change if it wasn't started yet. I scheduled the oil change before it was really required out of convenience in conjunction with today's planned brake job."

He said he'll go check on it right now. He came back about 10 minutes later and stated that the oil change and 4k mile maintenance would be finished at no charge. This was a $39 savings to me and really, I was only out the gas I paid to drive 18 miles round trip to the dealer. It was a lazy Saturday morning for me so I didn't mind.

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